On March 10, Xi Jinping entered an unprecedented third term as Chinese President. The re-election of Xi Jinping was made possible thanks to amendments to the country’s Constitution.
In October 2022, after the XX Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping was re-elected for a third term as head of the party – general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The committee’s charter does not contain any term limits for the General Secretary of the Central Committee, so Xi’s re-election as head of state was quite expected.
Nearly 3,000 members of the National People’s Congress voted unanimously in the Great Hall of the People’s Assembly to ensure that 69-year-old Xi Jinping remains the leader of the state. There were no other applicants for . The voting itself lasted about an hour, and the electronic vote count was completed in about 15 minutes.
The election of the head of state for a third term became possible after amendments were made to the PRC constitution, which provided for the exclusion of a provision restricting the right to hold this leadership post for two five-year terms.
Recently, all of China, and Xi in particular, has been facing problems in an economy that has been severely damaged by Xi Jinping’s three-year anti-COVID policy, as well as low purchasing power among citizens and weak demand for Chinese exports.
The economy grew just 3% last year, one of China’s worst performance in decades. For example, China has set a GDP growth target for this year at around 5%, which analysts say is fairly “modest” and “pragmatic.”
Many experts agree that in his third term, Xi will need to focus on economic development, otherwise the prospects for the next election will be somewhat bleak.
On the morning of March 10, Parliament also elected Zhao Leji, 66, as the new Parliament Speaker and Han Zheng, 68, as the new Vice President of the People’s Republic of China. Both were part of the team of party leaders in the Standing Committee of the Politburo.
